Brush News

Not enough signatures for secession vote

Only 900 collected

Posted:
08/27/2013 08:59:11 AM MDT

Updated:
08/28/2013 08:33:13 AM MDT

It looks like there will be no vote on secession in Morgan County this year.

With about 900 signatures, petitions collected by individuals to put a question on the ballot on whether or not Morgan County supported creating North Colorado fell short of the 2,300 signatures required to put the issue on the ballot in November.

That 2,300 signature figure would make up about 15 percent of the registered voters in Morgan County, which is what the Board of Morgan County Commissioners had set as the number necessary to put the question on the ballot.

The petitions only collected signatures from about 6 percent of the county voters by the deadline on Monday, and those must still be checked for authenticity.

The board recently said that county officials would look through the signatures to make sure they were valid.

The commissioners had saved a place on the November ballot in case enough signatures were collected.

Board members had made it clear in July that they would not make the decision to put the question on the ballot — that such a move would need to come from county residents.

Some Weld County commissioners revealed a plan in early June for Weld County and a number of Northeast Colorado counties to join together and seceded to create the 51st state.

Frustration with the Colorado legislature's decisions on gun control, oil industry regulations and an increase in alternative energy requirements were mentioned by the Weld commissioners when they announced the bid for secession.

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At the time, they said that commissioners from all of the counties they mentioned — including Morgan County — had decided to join the move during a meeting of Colorado Counties Inc.

However, Morgan County's commissioners said they knew nothing about the plan at that time, and were not part of any such conversation at the CCI meeting.

Not long after that, the Morgan County commissioners said they would not lead any secession movement within Morgan County. If a question was to be put on the ballot, it needed to be put there by county residents.

They did attend a meeting on the idea in Akron in early July, but only to collect information, they said.

About two weeks ago, the commissioners said that petitions with 2,300 valid signatures from registered voters would be required to put the question on the ballot and those signatures needed to be turned in by Aug. 26.

That deadline was needed in order to validate the signatures in time to actually put a question on the ballot.

Weld County has proposed ballot language saying counties would pursue becoming part of the 51st state of the U.S.A.

When announcing the petition requirements, board Chairwoman Laura Teague said the Morgan County commissioners understood the frustration of rural residents with a legislature and governor that are more concerned with urban interests.

She said there is a lack of rural influence in the state capitol.

However, the Morgan County commissioners are also cognizant of the cost to area residents if such a course is taken, she said.

For example, there would be immediate challenges to water rights if the region separated from the rest of Colorado, Teague noted.

Local agricultural producers depend on those water rights to grow cattle and crops. Morgan County's economy relies on that agricultural production.

Also, another ballot issue to pay for the financial costs of secession would have to be passed before anything could be done, Teague said.

Morgan County Commissioner Jim Zwetzig said that the board had continued a discussion of a new form of representative government during a recent meeting of the Colorado Counties Inc., eastern district meeting. This new idea would reform the Colorado Senate by having a state senator elected from each county, which would give rural counties more clout in the state legislature.

Last week, the Logan County commissioners said they would put the question on their ballot. Weld, Phillips, Sedgwick, Cheyenne and Yuma counties had already approved secession ballot questions.

Under Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, a portion of a state cannot be split off without the permission of the state legislature and the U.S. Congress.

The last area to secede and become a state in its own right was West Virginia.

Many states have seen moves for parts of those states to secede, but none have succeeded in the last 150 years or so.

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